GAO denies, dismisses second protest of Y-12, Pantex contract award

The U.S. Government Accountability Office on Tuesday rejected a three-part protest filed in June by one of the two teams that lost a competition earlier this year to manage two nuclear weapons plants in Tennessee and Texas, a contract that could be worth up to $22.8 billion. Pictured above is one of the plants, the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge. (Photo courtesy B&W Y-12)

The U.S. Government Accountability Office on Tuesday denied or dismissed three elements of a protest filed in June by one of the two teams that lost a competition earlier this year to manage two nuclear weapons plants in Tennessee and Texas, a contract that could be worth up to $22.8 billion.

The bid protest was filed on June 17 by Nuclear Production Partners LLC, or NP2, a team led by Babcock and Wilcox Co. NP2 was one of three bidding teams that sought to manage and operate the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge and the Pantex Plant near Amarillo, Texas.

The GAO had 100 days to respond to the June protest, and it issued its decision one day before a Sept. 25 deadline. The decision announced Tuesday dismissed as premature allegations regarding discussions and proposal revisions, denied an assertion that the National Nuclear Security Administration had to further amend the award solicitation, and dismissed as untimely NP2’s arguments regarding the application of Federal Acquisition Regulation’s requirements for cost realism analysis.

It wasn’t immediately clear what would happen next. The transition to a new contractor had originally been scheduled to be complete by May 1 of this year, but the protests have put the transition on hold.

The Babcock and Wilcox Co., or B&W, responded to the GAO’s decision on Tuesday evening.

“With the agency maintaining that most of NP2’s protest is premature, we look forward to NNSA’s next steps in the process, knowing the strength of our proposal and team,” said George Dudich, president of Babcock and Wilcox Technical Services Group Inc. “In the meantime, we remain focused on operating Y-12 and Pantex safely and securely until a final decision on the contract is made.”

It was the second protest filed by NP2, of Lynchburg, Va. On April 29, the GAO upheld one part of an earlier pair of protests filed by NP2 and Integrated Nuclear Production Solutions LLC of Oak Ridge. In that decision, the GAO raised questions about proposed savings and recommended that the procurement be re-opened and more information requested from the three bidding teams about their proposed cost savings. The GAO also recommended that the relative size of each team’s proposed cost savings be evaluated. The winning team, Consolidated Nuclear Security LLC, or CNS, had promised to save $3.27 billion during the next decade.

In May, the NNSA announced that it would request more information from the three teams. In its statement, B&W said it had submitted the additional information requested by the NNSA after part of the first protest was sustained.

In the decision announced Tuesday, the GAO said NP2 had most objected, in its second protest, to various aspects of the NNSA’s ongoing corrective action, primarily arguing that the agency should conduct broader discussions, permit more extensive proposal revisions, and/or amend the solicitation to reflect changes occurring due to the passage of time. NP2 also renewed its prior argument that the agency must comply with the FAR’s requirements for cost realism analysis, the GAO said.

Here is the GAO digest of the decision announced Tuesday:

Dismissed as premature NP2s’ allegations challenging the adequacy of discussions and the limitations on proposal revisions in connection with the agency’s ongoing source selection process.

Denied the team’s assertion that the agency is required to amend the solicitation to reflect various changes that have occurred due to the passage of time.

Said a protest alleging that the proposed cost savings, which the solicitation stated would be evaluated under the technical/management evaluation factors, should be subject to the Federal Acquisition Regulation’s cost realism requirements is not timely filed where terms of the solicitation advised offerors that only offerors’ fees would be used as the evaluated cost for purposes of the best value determination.

The NNSA first published the contract solicitation in December 2011. In addition to managing and operating Y-12 and Pantex, the winning team is expected to manage construction of the Uranium Processing Facility at Y-12 and could manage tritium operations at the Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C.

Join the club!

If you haven't already, please consider subscribing to Oak Ridge Today. You don't have to subscribe to read our stories, but your subscription will help us cover local news for you day and night, as best we can. You can subscribe for as little as $5 per month. You can read more about your options here.

Thank you for your consideration and for reading Oak Ridge Today. We appreciate your support.

Subscription options

Advertisements

Commenting Guidelines

We welcome comments, but we ask you to follow a few guidelines:

1) Please use your real name, including last name. Please also use a valid e-mail address.
2) Be civil. Don't insult others, attack their character, or get personal.
3) Stick to the issues.
4) No profanity.
5) Keep your comments to a reasonable length and to a reasonable number per article.

We reserve the right to remove any comments that violate these guidelines. Comments held for review, usually from those posting for the first time, may not post if they violate these guidelines. Thank you for your patience and understanding. Thank you also for reading Oak Ridge Today and for participating in the discussion.

More Government News

The Oak Ridge Public Works Department will start emergency repair work on a sewer line that runs underneath Oak Ridge Turnpike on Monday.
Hurst Excavating LLC, a contractor for the City of Oak Ridge, will repair the … [Read More...]

Information from WYSH Radio
Wednesday morning, officials gathered at the new Tennessee College of Applied Technology–or TCAT—facility on Andersonville Highway for a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
The new but temporary … [Read More...]

The USRowing Masters National Championships will be at Melton Lake Park this weekend, August 17-20.
There will be a detour for non-local traffic at Melton Lake Drive and Emory Valley Road to reduce congestion and … [Read More...]

The Oak Ridge Community Development Department is continuing the Oak Ridge City Blueprint effort with a discussion focused on the Emory Valley, Briarcliff, and Lakeview residential neighborhoods. An open house … [Read More...]